1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates a dental optical measuring device and a dental optical measuring/diagnosing tool usable, for example, for making a diagnosis on an oral cavity.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Along with the advancement of diagnostic techniques, it is now desired to acquire detailed and accurate information on a diagnostic target site more than ever before.
For example, Patent Document 1 proposes a dental tomographic image display system, by which a tomographic image of a tooth and the gum is acquired by use of optical coherence tomography.
The dental tomographic image display system described in Patent Document 1 scans a certain range with light of an oscillation wavelength, allows the light to be incident on a probe, performs scanning and irradiation with signal light by use of a coherent optical meter and an optical path scanning change section provided in the probe, and causes interference of scattered light from a detection target and reference light in the probe to acquire coherent light. The dental tomographic image display system is structured such that the coherent signal is processed with Fourier transformation to acquire an image signal in a depth direction, and also such that the image is located based on a scanning direction to acquire two-dimensional tomographic image from the optical coherence tomography information.
As another method, Patent Document 2 proposes a dental three-dimensional camera for recording a surface structure of a diagnostic target site by use of triangulation.
The optical coherence tomography information acquired by the tomographic image display system as disclosed in Patent Document 1 and the three-dimensional shape information acquired by the three-dimensional camera as disclosed in Patent Document 2 are different from each other. Therefore, an appropriate device among diagnostic devices used for the respective methods needs to be used to acquire information appropriate for a specific part of the diagnostic target site or the content of diagnosis.
However, these diagnostic devices are independent from each other. In order to acquire optical coherence tomography information and three-dimensional shape information, large-scale facilities are necessary. In addition, it is necessary to first acquire information on the diagnostic target site by either an optical coherence tomography information acquisition device such as a tomographic image display system or a three-dimensional shape information acquisition device such as a three-dimensional camera, and then replace the device to acquire the other information.